Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 17, 1973, Winnipeg, Manitoba Sri Lanka diets for survival by Lucien Raj Karuna Colombo special owns there Are no cakes and Pas tries for sri Lanka Ceylon Folk these Days. Bakers Are banned from making them. Hotels and canteens cannot serve even Rice or bread on two Days a week. Rice is the key food. The is land Republic grows Only half the amount of this Staple diet its 13 million people eat and with diminishing earnings of foreign Exchange from its Tea rubber and Coconut industries it can no longer afford to buy the rest abroad. So mrs. S i r i m a v o Bandaranaike s United front government is locked in a Battle to get the people to eat less Rice grow More of almost any food and to save the country from bankruptcy. A measure of the Effort May be seen from a decision to Cut the people s weekly free ration of two pounds of Rice by half income tax payers will get none at and to abolish the additional two pounds rationed at a controlled Price. Bice is also a key political Factor. For years since the is land achieved its Independence from successive sri Lanka governments have competed against each other in providing the people with cheaper and cheaper Rice to try to ensure being voted Back into Power. Finally six years ago the right Wing government of Dudley Senanayake went the whole hog and gave Rice away once a week. Mrs. Bandara Zaike s govern ment has still not summoned up enough courage to Stop the h a n d out though with the major marxist parties in her lecture series scheduled a four part sunday evening lecture series on the Church and the modern Catholic will be held in Hanley the University of Manitoba Start ing oct. 28. Father Gregory Baum a professor of theology and religious studies at the University of Toronto will begin the series oct. 28 with a discussion of changing morality in. The Churchon nov. 4, w Daniel Cawthon and father Ray Currie discuss. The. Religious experience of. Today s youth. Religion professors at the University of Manitoba. Father Daniel Berrigan an activist priest and guest lec Turer at the University of Manitoba will talk about dissent in the Church on nov. 11. Germain. Grisez a philosophy professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Regina will wind up the series with a discussion of the new morality and the Church on nov. 18. All lectures begin at 8 . Further information can be obtained from St. Paul s col lege at the University 01 Mani Toba. Coalition and no protest uttered by the Trade unions she has Felt Able to risk cutting it. The Over All plan is to get the people to grow More food to make the country self support ing in Rice by the end of .1974, and in the meantime make them Cut Down their eating and pay for what they eat cultivators will get More for their work the Price of flour and bread has doubled and controls have been slapped on sup plies of the three Basic items Rice flour and sugar. The crisis has been creeping up of sri Lanka for a Long time until it broke this year with crop failures at Home and in the major Rice producing areas elsewhere in the world. To this was added a shrinking Treasury until a frightening Point has been reached. The most optimistic estimate is that next year sri Lanka will earn about million in foreign Exchange from its exports. To buy foreign food at the rate ruling before mrs. the Brake on would Cost Ini Vionis Leav ing Only millions to buy All other things abroad including Industrial raw materials and drugs and also to service foreign debts which alone Cost the nation around millions a year. The practice hitherto has been to get foreign consumer Loans for buying food and to use Export earnings to service the foreign debts loan sources Are now drying up. Hence the government has been forced into a policy of restrictions in eating and Succes Sive governments. Have been dodging for decades. The country is now virtually on a War footing. Emergency regu lations have been promulgated to take Over any private land not being used to grow food. The Plantation companies have been asked to Arlo some of their workers to help grow food. Two foreign companies tobacco com Pany a subsidiary of Imperial tobacco and lever Brothers a subsidiary of Unilever have joined a scheme to grow and popularize soybean. All available land is foreign owned Tea plantations is being turned Over to Quick food crops. With the threat of takeover now staring them in the face Many Absentee landlords Are hurriedly planting crops they never wanted to grow and unemployed youth is being directed to farm work. Thousand acres have been planted to yield tapioca and Sweet potato. The people Are to cat yams plentiful in the Countryside and in. City canteens Rice substitutes yams tuber Maize and Millet will be served to office and factory workers. On the very Brink of disaster therefore there is a gleam of Hope. If sri Lanka has really put behind it the ship to Mouth Economy financed by foreign Loans and if All the new., disciplines and incentives create and sustain a National will to become self sufficient in then 1973 May still be. A. Take off year towards solvency. Wait til you see the new Dat suns get be for a Good time october 19. Try Sconci motors Ltd. 801 ave. Youve always wanted to own a buy this one. For a1 As a Beautiful piece of clothing a leather coat is in but not at tip top. We saw what was happening to the surpassed Price of leather. So we went to a Canadian manufacturer. Its Rich textures lend themselves so handsomely to bold we bought Early. And we bought a lot. Tailoring. Severely notched lapels. Heavy stitching. Big. Naturally we got a heal. So. Vou pockets. _ open a convenient tip top charge account. And As an investment leather few of our leathers. Saving Money never looked so Good. So 222 7341 Polo Park shopping Centre open . Monday thursday t Friday -1 . 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